Health Insurance Companies to offer coverage to young adult children

In the announcement made by the federal employee health insurance program, it is unlikely this year to offer young adults the ability to remain on their parents’ policies until the age of 26. In simpler terms, it means that it will not follow the lead of some private insurance companies which will begin to offer such coverage to young adults by June 1. The current health care law requires insurers to offer to keep adults younger than age 26 covered through their parents’ health plans. It may be noted that United Healthcare, Well point, Humana, Independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans and KAISER Permanente said last week that they will offer such coverage immediately by June 1. This has come as a relief to many however some major insurers say they wont make young consumers wait.

Executive Director of Families USA, Ron Pollack said, “It creates a standard that becomes the norm throughout the health insurance marketplace”. The OPM statement updated last Friday said, “Though we are eager to provide coverage to young adults prior to January 1, the current law governing the FEHB Program specifically prohibits us from doing so. Unfortunately, this does not allow flexibility for FEHB plans to provide coverage to other adult children until the provision" in the new health law becomes effective in September”.

The law defines dependent family members as unmarried children under age 22 and this is restricting the OPM actions. Young adults turning 22 are covered for an additional 30 days under their parents’ plan, notes OPM, which is noted in a story by the Federal Times. It may be noted that during this time, they can keep insurance for an additional 36 months through the Temporary Continuation Coverage (TCC) program.

Dying from a stroke - like Miss Hawaii Teen Sheryl Wolfe - is highly unusual for teenagers: docs

Strokes in teenagers - like the one that led to the death of Miss Hawaii Teen United States Sheryl Wolfe this week at just 18 years old - are unexpected, devastating and, fortunately, very rare. The incidence ranges from .06 to two cases for every 100,000 kids and teens, said Michael DeGeorgia, director of the center for neurocritical care and a neurology professor at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ischemic strokes, caused by lack of oxygen to the brain, are more common than hemorrhagic, or bleeding, strokes. “It’s not that these kids who get strokes are drinkers or smokers or that they have clogged arteries,” he said.

“It’s usually a clotting abnormality in an otherwise healthy artery or an abnormality in the heart that causes a clot to form. If it goes to the head, it can cause a stroke.”

Another reason for an ischemic stroke is the dissection, or tearing, of a blood vessel that supplies the brain, De Georgia said.

“This can be caused by injuries in sports like hockey, football and wrestling,” he said . “But research suggests that the person this happens to has an inherited connective tissue disease that results in a weakness in the artery wall.

” Teens with sickle cell disease have a higher stroke risk, said Dr. Toby Gropen, chairman of neurology at Long Island College Hospital.

“Strokes can’t easily be predicted, but a family history of clotting abnormalities, miscarriages or cardiac disease at a young age should prompt some discussion with the family doctor,” Gropen said.

Some strokes in young people could occur because they have an autoimmune disease like lupus, said Dr. Steven Wolf, director of pediatric neurology at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals, and birth control pills can raise the risk of stroke, but very slightly.

As for making lifestyle changes to prevent stroke, doctors say the best course of action is simply to be aware of family history. If someone in your family had a brain aneurysm or AVM that results in a bleeding stroke, that raises the risk a little bit, for example.

The survival statistics for bleeding strokes are sobering. Half of these stroke victims die, and half of those who survive have a permanent disability.

“If you survive a bleed, a good number of those people are left with a permanent disability of some type, whether it is motor or cognitive,” said Dr. Max Wiznitzer, pediatric neurologist at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. “But the risk of death from ischemic stroke is much lower.”

Sania-Shoaib tie the knot

Sania Mirza and Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik finally got married on Monday. The 23-year-old Indian ace and 28-year-old Shoaib were scheduled to wed on April 15, but the family advanced the date. The Indian tennis ace was dressed in a red sari, the one her mother Nasima wore for her nikaah 25 years ago. Shoaib, a former Pakistan captain, wore a black sherwani, designed by Shantanu and Nikhil, for the nikaah ceremony, held at hotel Taj Krishna.